Parks in this Network

Monitoring

Data gathering in Glacier National Park.

The intent of park vital signs monitoring is to track a subset of physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems that are selected to represent the overall health or condition of park resources, known or hypothesized effects of stressors, or elements that have important human values.

Protocols are the core of the Rocky Mountain Network monitoring program, describing what will be measured where, how, and how often. Protocols are detailed study plans designed to ensure that changes detected by monitoring actually are occurring; that is, that they do not stem from measurement variability introduced when different people or methods are used.